Hollyoaks fans ‘work out’ who the father of Leah’s baby is – and they’re beside themselves
Hollyoaks spoilers follow for Monday’s (September 16) episode that is now available to view on Channel 4 streaming. The episode in question will air on E4 on at 7pm.
Hollyoaks fans are practically fighting tears after believing that they’ve worked out the answer to one of the biggest mysteries posed by the show’s long-awaited time jump.
The popular Channel 4 soap has officially jumped one year into the future, with life very different for the residents of the eponymous village, who face new challenges, embark on new relationships and piece their life back together after the events of stunt week.
While pretty much every development dropped the jaws of eager fans who got up early to watch the new episode online, it was ultimately Leah Barnes’ (Ela-May Demircan) unexpected pregnancy that got everyone talking.
The teen was seen cradling her baby bump alongside Leela Dexter (Kirsty-Leigh Porter), who is also pregnant, as they paid tribute to James Nightingale (Gregory Finnegan), who was quite bafflingly killed off.
As the episode progressed, Leah’s waters broke and she was raced to Dee Valley hospital, where she welcomed her newborn baby.
According to Leela, Charlie Dean (Charlie Behan) is the father of the baby, but fans’ aren’t so sure that this is actually the case after a throwaway line appeared to suggest that Dillon Ray (Nathaniel Dass) is actually the dad.
‘He’s been such a good friend to our Leah’, said Leela of Dillon, was very eager to know how the baby was doing.
Yikes.
The reaction online, as you can imagine, is one of outrage, with viewers desperately hoping that their theory is wrong. Dillon, as fans know, is in a relationship with Lucas Hay (Oscar Curtis), who is seemingly in youth offenders at the beginning of the new era.
Lucas is Leah’s brother. It would be extremely out of character for Dillon to cheat on Lucas, but to do so with his sister would be downright awful – and very hard for Lucas and Dillon (aka HayRay) to come back from.
Metro reader Danielle said: ‘Dillon better not be the dad of leahs baby how could he do that to lucas it has to be charlies I’m praying it’s charlies.’
X/Twitter user JJ wrote: ‘If what people are saying about Dillon turns out to be true, there’s no coming back from that like HayRay are bones.’ This is a sentiment that Gemma largely agreed with, claiming that Hollyoaks would be ‘killing’ quite a large portion of its audience.
Cheyenne agreed, writing: ‘Ok I’m going go say this if Dillon did cheat on Lucas with Leah and got her pregnant then I don’t think I’d want hayray back together because that’s just out of order his sister and the guy he loves more than anything going behind his back is just not ok.’
Rubs added: ‘If Dillon is Leah’s baby daddy, I will scream! Dillon betraying Lucas like that is so out of character in my opinion.’
They’re not wrong. Dillon rejected Leah’s advances previously, showing no romantic interest in her whatsoever as he was falling hard for Lucas at the time.
He subsequently proved supportive of Lucas throughout his coming out journey, with the two finally getting their happy-ever-after in June.
Dillon cheating at all seems incredibly out-of-character, but to do so with Leah would be a major betrayal of his characterisation.
Let’s just hope that it’s a red-herring!
Hollyoaks streams Mondays to Wednesdays from 7am on Channel 4’s streaming platform, or catch episodes on TV at 7pm on E4.
